FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention is within the field of multi-conductor optical cable end preparation. The invention relates to a junction configuration for an optical cable. The junction configuration has a plurality of optical waveguide receiving sheaths and a fan out element into which the optical cable enters and from which the optical waveguide receiving sheaths emerge. The optical waveguide receiving sheaths receiving in each case only one individual optical waveguide of the optical cable.
A junction configuration which includes a shrinkage tube serving as a fan out element is disclosed in Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 43 41 481 A1. Into one of the ends of the shrinkage tube there enters a multi-conductor optical cable which, with release of the ends of its strain relief device, is freed at the end from a cable jacket which is common to the conductors. The conductors branch in pairs into individual jackets or receiving sheaths with in each case one individual strain relief. The receiving sheaths emerge at the other end of the fan out element. In order to guarantee a reliable transfer of the tensile stresses over the junction region, there is introduced into the shrinkage tube a curing or curable sealing material into which the respective strain relief ends are embedded. The pair of optical waveguides of an individual jacket emerges from the free end of the individual jacket and ends in a common plug connector, e.g. a so-called ESCON duplex plug.
The configuration has proved to be effective, in practice, for conductors of a multi-conductor optical cable which extend in pairs power wise in a common receiving sheath and which are received and sealed off by a common dual plug.
In specified practical applications, with regard to flexibility and an increased assembly and service friendliness, use is increasingly being made of dual plug constructions in which two individual plugs (e.g. SC plugs) form a dual plug (so-called SC duplex plug) with the aid of a common holder. Such a dual plug is known, for example, from German Patent DE 43 02 826 C1 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,812. In the use of such a dual plug for the (partial) connection of a multi-conductor cable, the individual receiving sheaths separately emerging from the fan out element could in principle in each instance guide an individual optical waveguide to the respective individual plug. As the free length of the individual receiving sheaths increases, there is however the risk that the relatively flexurally slack sheaths will become twisted and/or tangled with adjacent receiving sheaths or articles, and it being possible for the optical waveguide extending within them to be damaged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,067 discloses a junction configuration of the initially mentioned type, which includes a fan out element into one of the ends of which a multi-conductor optical cable enters. The fan out element is a cylindrical sleeve, which may be provided, at its other end, with individual receiving bushings. Individual optical waveguide receiving sheaths that receive in each case one optical waveguide end in the receiving bushings. The optical waveguides emerging from the receiving bushings extend freely and individually to an individual plug which is disposed in each instance at the end of the optical waveguide.